Let's Not Orbit White Elephants

Last spring's announcement that NASA would seek Russian help to redesign and & build the agency's beleaguered white elephant of a space station seemed like such a good idea it was almost shocking. One-world visions of multicultural life among the stars danced briefly in the heads of old Trekkies and space fans. The inclusion of Russia, the only other spacefaring nation, could breathe new life into the tired space-station project and indeed into the entire once great, once imagination-grabbing American space program. As it turns out, that idea was too good to be true. The new space station approved by Clinton...